36
Cinema, Photography and Television
UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI "L'ORIENTALE"
Overview
Date/time interval
Syllabus
Course Objectives
The course aims to provide an introduction to the study of cinema and television, enabling students to become familiar with key filmmakers and showrunners, works, styles and genres, production practices, movements, and periods that have been fundamental to the development of audiovisual media; to understand the aesthetic, historical, economic, technological, and social factors that have shaped the evolution of cinema and television within the broader context of media and the arts; and to master and critically interpret the main lines of transformation and continuity that have characterised audiovisual media in Italy.
The course is designed to achieve the following learning outcomes:
1. Knowledge and understanding. Students acquire knowledge of filmmakers, showrunners, works, styles, genres, production models, movements, and periods that are of fundamental importance in the history of audiovisual media in Italy; they understand the aesthetic, historical, economic, technological, and social factors that have shaped the development of Italian audiovisual media within the broader media environment; and they develop a critical understanding of the modes of distribution and circulation of Italian audiovisual works in the international context.
2. Applying knowledge and understanding. Students are able to identify and contextualise a work, a filmmaker, a showrunner, a style, a genre, a movement, or a production model within the history of cinema and television; they can situate a work, a filmmaker, a showrunner, a style, a movement, or a production model within its broader aesthetic, historical, economic, and social context of origin; they correctly use the concept of film distribution and can define the distinctive features of the international circulation of Italian audiovisual works in different historical periods.
3. Making judgements. Students develop a critical understanding of the main issues related to the history of audiovisual media and its methodologies, together with basic analytical skills for interpreting audiovisual texts.
4. Communication skills. Students are able to use and apply correctly the specific vocabulary of the discipline.
5. Learning skills. Students are able to use the conceptual and methodological tools acquired to navigate independently within the field of audiovisual media studies.
Course Prerequisites
None.
Teaching Methods
The course combines lectures, screenings of significant sequences, textual analysis, and in-class discussion.
Assessment Methods
The exam is an oral assessment and consists of a brief discussion in Italian on the required texts and the films/episodes listed in the filmography. Viewing all films and episodes is an integral part of the exam.
Assessment criteria
In the final examination, students will be required to demonstrate:
1. Knowledge and understanding: that they have acquired the fundamental notions related to the topics, films, and television series included in the course programme.
2. Applying knowledge and understanding: that they are able to situate works, filmmakers, styles, genres, movements, and production models within the history of Italian audiovisual media and within their broader aesthetic, historical, economic, and social contexts; and that they can analyse the forms of circulation of an audiovisual work.
3. Making judgements: that they have developed the ability to formulate autonomous and critical evaluations of the topics addressed in the course, and that they can analyse audiovisual works, their contexts of origin, and their modes of circulation.
4. Communication skills: that they master the specific vocabulary of the discipline and can present the topics covered in the course accurately and clearly.
5. Learning skills: that they can use the conceptual and methodological tools acquired to independently develop a critical reflection.
Texts
For exam preparation, it is essential to integrate the material discussed during the lectures with the viewing of the films and episodes listed in the filmography (which constitutes an integral part of the exam) and with the study of the following required texts:
General section
G. P. Brunetta, Cinema italiano, Einaudi, 2024 (for the purposes of the exam, Chapters I and II are optional).
The international circulation of Italian audiovisual works
1) D. Garofalo, C’era una volta in America. Storia del cinema italiano negli Stati Uniti, 1946–2000, Rubbettino, 2023.
2) C. Bisoni, E. Farinacci, “L’amica geniale: anatomia di una comunità interpretativa transnazionale,” in Cinergie, no. 18, 2020, pp. 49–58.
3) V. Re, “Crime sì, ma ‘di qualità’: sulla circolazione transnazionale del prodotto televisivo,” in Imago, no. 21, 2020, pp. 169–183.
Only for students taking the 9 cfu exam:
4) V. Coladonato, D. Garofalo, “Martin Scorsese presents. On a certain tendency in the canon of Italian cinema,” in La Valle dell’Eden, no. 37, 2021, pp. 23–36.
Non-attending students are encouraged to complement the reading of the books and the viewing of the films with the resources available on the following website:
https://www.italiancinema.it/.
FILMOGRAPHY
1. Roma città aperta (R. Rossellini, 1945) - Rome, Open City
2. Ladri di biciclette (V. De Sica, 1948) - Bicycle Thieves
3. L'avventura (M. Antonioni, 1960) - L'Avventura
4. La dolce vita (F. Fellini, 1960) - La Dolce Vita
5. Divorzio all'italiana (P. Germi, 1961) - Divorce Italian Style
6. Il Gattopardo (L. Visconti, 1963) - The Leopard
7. Per un pugno di dollari (S. Leone, 1964) - A Fistful of Dollars
8. Blow-Up (M. Antonioni, 1967) - Blow-Up
9. Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto (E. Petri, 1970) - Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
10. Ultimo tango a Parigi (B. Bertolucci, 1972) - Last Tango in Paris
11. Il portiere di notte (L. Cavani, 1974) - The Night Porter
12. Profondo rosso (D. Argento, 1975) - Deep Red
13. Mediterraneo (G. Salvatores, 1991) - Mediterraneo
14. Buongiorno, notte (M. Bellocchio, 2003) - Good Morning, Night
15. Gomorra (M. Garrone, 2008) - Gomorrah
16. La grande bellezza (P. Sorrentino, 2013) - The Great Beauty
17. Gomorra - La serie (S. Sollima, S01 E01, 2014) - Gomorrah - The Series
18. The Young Pope (P. Sorrentino, S01 E01, 2016) - The Young Pope
19. Chiamami col tuo nome (L. Guadagnino, 2017) - Call Me by Your Name
20. L'amica geniale (S. Costanzo, S01 E01, 2018) - My Brilliant Friend
21. Esterno notte (M. Bellocchio, S01 E01, 2022) - Exterior Night
22. Il Gattopardo (T. Shankland, S01 E01, 2025) - The Leopard
Contents
For an International History of Italian Audiovisual Media between the United States and Europe
The course aims to introduce students to the study of Italian audiovisual production, spanning cinema and television, considered from the perspective of the international circulation of Italian works, with particular attention to the United States and Europe.
It combines a cultural approach—aimed at understanding what kind of image of Italy has been constructed through cinematic and television narratives from Neorealism to the present—with an industrial perspective, in order to examine how distribution strategies have changed over time.
Alongside data on the international circulation of Italian audiovisual works, the course integrates both an examination of the critical reception of Italian films and television series abroad and analytical readings of those Italian audiovisual works that have found visibility and audiences in foreign markets.
Main topics:
• The international success of Neorealism
• The auteur canon: Antonioni, Fellini, Visconti
• New Italian Cinema: Pasolini and Bertolucci
• Popular cinema, political cinema, genre cinema
• The internalised tourist gaze
• Does it make sense to speak of national audiovisual cultures in the streaming era?
• “Auteur” television?
Drawing on a set of representative films and television series, the course discusses some turning points in the history of Italian audiovisual media from the post–World War II period to the present, and explores the following themes: issues of historiographical method; hypotheses and criteria of periodisation; production models, the audiovisual value chain, and distribution windows; forms of representation and aesthetic tendencies in Italian cinema and television; the notions of auteur/showrunner, genre, and school; national and transnational identities; the question of Hollywood hegemony; festivals, prestige economies, and soft power; the role of film and television criticism; and hybridisations between cinema and television.
Course Language
Italian.
More information
None.